Meet our amazing teachers for 2025!
Belladonna is a performance artist, entertainer and innovator residing in Washington DC. She is the founder and director of Bohemian Bellydance and the creatrix of the Boho Blade sword dancing system and certification program. Driven by her passion for creative expression and to help people feel good dancing in their body as it is right now Belladonna focuses on creating classes, educational programs, and training that are body friendly, meaningful and fun. She uses her dance education and training, as well as her hunger for knowledge and experience in art, design, and energy healing, to help make her programs authentic and inspiring.
The goal of Bohemian Belly Dance is to inspire people to get moving and to find time in their schedule to do something to help them feel good. Be it through sword training, daily drills, fusion fragments, Boho body care, performance projects, choreography or private instruction. Belladonna is a masterful performer, swordswoman and tour guide to help you connect to yourself and to like minded individuals who have similar interests in fantasy, dance, sword play, costuming, character development, creativity and so much more.
Belladonna is the creative director of Solanaceae, an international fusion dance company, Belladonna and the Nightshades, a DC based performance company, Co-founder and co-producer of the annual Raven's Night soiree and can often be seen on stage and off with drag king legend Ken Vegas.
Obsessed with dance from a young age her dive into belly dance began in 1997. Belladonna has extensive training in a variety of styles of dance including but not limited to fusion styles of belly dance, raqs sharqi, bharatanatyam, flamenco, jazz and hip hop. She has studied with renowned instructors such as Artemis Mourat, Amel Tafsout, Donna Mejia, Rahcel Brice, Zoe Jakes, Amy Sigil, Suhaila Salimpour, John Compton, Megha Gavin, Carolena Nericcio and many more. Passionate about her sword work she also has experience with and enjoys dancing with; fire, poi, fans (feather, fire and fabric) as well as veil, and other appropriate tools depending on the situation. A dancer by nature she had had the pleasure to work with a variety of styles of performance events and venues. Including but not limited to belly dance conferences, music festivals, drag king, burlesque and circus shows as well as haflas, and private events.
Jessyka teaches beginner bellydance, Karma Echoes Level 1, and yoga in the Blue Mountains in Sydney. She has also taught workshops at festivals across Sydney, and online for The Stygian Collective and Gothla UK. Her teaching ethos is all about practical, useful information that helps dancers progress. She believes in creating supportive, friendly learning environments, and uses cognitive tools to aid in memorising and retaining information. Her workshops this year are aimed at the intermediate student who is looking to begin performing, but needs a hand in creating choreography and costuming.
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She also has a lot of online content available - check it out at www.moveandthrive.net
Amanda PB is no stranger to the dark side. Always the performer on one level or another, she was a DJ in goth and alternative nightclubs in Melbourne before she became a bellydancer (aka "finding the glitter"). She is Australia's only Fundamentals Certified Salimpour School Instructor, is the CEO and one of the founders of the Australian Belly Dance Convention and also just an all round bad ass dancer. She believes that it doesn't matter what style of dance you think you are doing, good basic training skills are essential for all and she's always down for a good shimmy session.
Rassputin is a globe trotting burlesque performer with a penchant for blending elements of every performance styles to break boundaries and shatter expectations. He has performed with The Queen of Burlesque, Imogen Kelly, trod the boards at fringe seasons all around Australia and is a darling of the Melbourne cabaret scene, running regular shows at Speakeasy Theatre.
Kylie Astarte is an artist, dancer and creatrix based in Shellharbour NSW. She brings over 28 years of experience in belly dance, fusion, and theatrical performance as both a teacher and performer, and is also the director of Astarte Studio Belly Dance & Fusion in Shellharbour and the Steampunk Vagabonds.
She’ll give you fuel, give you fire and everything you desire… Kalikah is Adelaide’s hottest fire fusion bellydance artist, a uniquely captivating mistress of belly dance who expertly blends flames, glitter and rock n roll. With her scorching presence and signature heavy metal musicality, she turns up the heat and leaves audiences smouldering. Setting every stage ablaze with a mere flick of her rhinestone encrusted hips, be intoxicated by the primal force of Australia's goddess of metal and fire fusion, Kalikah . Check her out at her website www.kalikahbellydancer.com.au
Sarah is a dedicated lifelong dancer who trained intensively in Classical Ballet and Contemporary dance before she found her love in Fusion Bellydance, which has become the platform for her soul and artistic expression, allowing her to explore emotions and archetypes within herself. Sarah regularly travels internationally for training and is currently certified in Zoe Jakes Dance Craft Key of Spades (L2), Olga Meos Phase 2 and Deb Rubin Dance Therapeutics (L1) as well as regularly travelling to India to study classical Indian dance forms with Colleena Shakti. She is the director of ALYASATI Fusion Bellydance School in Melbourne and has taught workshops and performed in India, Bali, New Caledonia & various Bellydance & Music Festivals around Australia and Europe
Vudu Doll - She's fierce, She's Deadly, She's 99% duct tape and she's here to help you find your fierce!
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(Wolf ) ifritah works in a place where visual arts, electronics, circus & dance practices collide. Causing an explosion of rainbows and fierce feminine energy that transcends gender norms. She's been pioneering combining fire and bellydance for the last 10 years, has a background in training and a consent based practice to make you feel supported while doing scary things.
Part dancer, part mother, part goddess, part cyborg - Aradia strives to create high quality movement generated with emotion and purpose. She draws upon her 35 years of dance experience to conjure performances and workshops that aim to open the dancers mind to a completely new realm of dance. Encompassing years of jazz, tap, ballroom, modern jive, hip hop, polynesian, tribal, classical egyptian, turkish, greek, hawaiian, contemporary, ballet and years of samurai sword training, Aradia draws her focus and dedication from many arts. Through this dedication, Aradia has created Industrial Belly dance - a style that will blow circuits in the brain and defy human movement.